What is new in Biotech

Science-fiction writers have long envisioned human-machine hybrids that wield extraordinary powers. However, "super plants" with integrated nanomaterials may be much closer to reality than cyborgs.
Today, scientists report the development of plants that can make nanomaterials called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and the application of MOFs as...

The mighty genome editor CRISPR isn’t so powerful in lizards and snakes: Never before has it been used to edit the embryos of these reptiles. Now, researchers have come up with a workaround – by editing the immature, unfertilized eggs of brown anole lizards.
Researchers typically edit with CRISPR by injecting it into a single-celled fertilized...

Sacks of pungent animal feed cram the corridors of a Cyagen Biosciences Inc. center for laboratory mice in southern China, maximizing space for rodents that sell for as much as $17,000 a pair.
Demand is skyrocketing in China for animals that mimic the diseases of humans. President Xi Jinping’s drive to turn the country into a biomedical...

For the first time, scientists have engineered the complex biological process of translation into a designer organelle in a living mammalian cell.
Research by the Lemke group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) – in collaboration with JGU Mainz and IMB Mainz – used this technique to create a membraneless organelle that can build...

The long bones in our arms and legs have a layer of smooth, compressible cartilage at each end, which gradually transitions to hard bone underneath.
This dual-density combo is known as osteochondral tissue, and when it develops cracks or otherwise gets damaged, conditions such as disabling arthritis can result. Although such injuries frequently...

An international team of researchers has succeeded in making 13,200 edits to a single cell – and the cell survived. In their paper uploaded to the bioRxiv preprint server, the team describes the edits they made, how they did it and why.
The CRISPR gene editing technique has made headlines around the world over the past several years as...

For a long time, researchers were only able to examine human cells infected with bacteria by using cancer cell lines. However, these transformed cells often give a false impression of the infection process.
Fallopian tube organoids from normal human fallopian tube cells, on the other hand, reflect the natural structure of the tissue. Scientists...

A one-of-a-kind rhesus macaque named Grady is growing up under intense scrutiny at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton. That’s because she has an unusual pedigree: researchers created her using sperm from tissue harvested from her father’s testicles when he was young, and then grafted onto his body as an adult.
If all goes...

Scientists have grown a miniature brain in a dish with a spinal cord and muscles attached, an advance that promises to accelerate the study of conditions such as motor neurone disease.
The lentil-sized grey blob of human brain cells were seen to spontaneously send out tendril-like connections to link up with the spinal cord and muscle tissue,...

A Japanese committee has provisionally approved the use of reprogrammed stem cells to treat diseased or damaged corneas. Researchers are now waiting for final approval from the health ministry to test the treatment in people with corneal blindness, which affects millions of people around the world.
The cornea, a transparent layer that covers and...